What is the nature of inner life wisdom and its relationship to education? What is the meaning of education and how does intellectual knowledge relate to the aspect of knowing? What approach to education takes us on a path to wholeness?
The word "education" comes from the Latin word "educare" meaning to lead out, draw out, and bring forth. This entails creating a learning environment within which we utilize not only our intellectual mind but also our spiritual heart to bring forth and unfold higher knowledge and wisdom. This approach to education takes us on the path to wholeness, a whole life education that seeks to balance and synthesize acquired intellectual knowledge, the knowledge of our mind, with revealed inner life wisdom, the higher source of wisdom within ourselves.
This path to wholeness creates a shift in our aware consciousness towards a more balanced and whole scholarly education and a more balanced, meaningful and fulfilling life. It awakens our spirit and this awakening develops into awareness and knowing our true essence, our true identity, our true being – who we really are.
This workshop explores:
Our true identity is our Higher Self. Our Higher Self is part of each of us. It is our Wise Being within, the accumulations of all our positive characteristics. It is that part that is compassionate, wise, gentle and caring, that part that authentically knows what is best for us. It is our creative authentic part that longs for expression and experiences to learn, to grow, to evolve.
Learning to work with the Higher Self helps us to develop our own inner guidance so that we truly become our wise being in all our thoughts, words and actions.
It guides us to experience truth, wisdom and joy in everything we do. It assists us, as teacher or student, to create a balanced environment at school, at the university, in our relationships and our daily life.
Consciously working with the Higher Self keeps us focused and calm during times of adversity, guides us being creatively inspired to make wholesome decisions, and helps us being open to change and new experiences. It guides us how to create a balanced whole life education, a balanced whole way of life, a learning experience that seeks to balance and harmonize our inner and our outer being: our inner work of transmuting our aware consciousness and our outer work of transforming our life world. This experience reflects balance and harmony in our life of education and our everyday life.
Consciously working with the Higher Self is a way of centering ourselves and connecting with our heart chakra, the energy center located in the center of our chest in line with our physical heart. The Higher Self always operates through the heart and can be contacted this way. The Higher Self utilizes the heart to give us the most important information and the best advice. This may come as an intuitive feeling of knowing through the heart, or a literal knowing coming through our mind.
Exercise I: Experiencing the Heart
Sit comfortably in a chair, back straight, feet flat on the floor. Close your eyes and take three deep breaths. Consciously let go of any thoughts or feelings. Feel yourself relax into a peaceful state.
Then consciously focus your energy and full attention on your heart chakra in the center of your chest and try to experience it. You may feel a slight pressure, warmth, or movement, or you may see light. Any of these experiences indicate that you are connected through your heart to your Higher Self. It is then that you can place a question into your heart and let it go. The answer may come as a sudden thought, an inner knowing, or a sensing or feeling. Or, it may come later when proceeding with your daily life activities as a flash of knowing, an aha moment.
Another practice to draw out, lead forth and unfold our inner life wisdom is meditation. Meditation can easily be synthesized with intellectual knowledge and adopted into whole life education.
There are numerous meditation practices. For instance, in primary school meditation may be moments of quiet time. In grade school and higher education one meditation practice may be heart meditation.
Exercise II: Heart Meditation
Comfortably sit in a chair, back straight, feet flat on the floor. Close your eyes, take some deep breaths and feel your whole body relax. Feel your feet, legs, stomach, chest, arms and shoulders relax. Relax your jaw, eyes, face and head. Keep breathing deeply. When your mind wanders, allow the thoughts that do arise to flow through your mind without clinging or identifying with the. Just let them go. Keep breathing deeply. Then center yourself by linking with your heart chakra in the center of your chest. Allow yourself to become calm and heart centered and to experience a sense of deep inner peace.
Practicing meditation by connecting with your Higher Self through your heart is a way of freeing the mind of thoughts and resting the mind in stillness. In this stillness the spirit is set free and we become aware of who we truly are. We can ask questions of our true or Higher Self and receive answers. The answers may come as an intuitive feeling of knowing that it is “right”, or a literal mind knowing.
Meditation in the classroom is a vital practice that allows teachers and students to calm and center themselves and come from a balanced sense of knowing and feeling.
It can be integrated as a daily practice at the start of each class. It can also be practiced just prior to stressful activities such as sitting for examinations, or creative activities such as writing or theorizing.
Meditation relieves stress and decreases anxiety. The principal source of stress is the mind. To calm down thinking during meditation in the classroom is a natural antidote to relieve stress. It also results in a slowed metabolic rate and this decreases anxiety. By way of a peaceful mind, meditation brings about a gradual fundamental change in consciousness and opens the gates to imagination, intuition, inspiration and creativeness. All these serve to guide toward transformative whole life learning that is helpful to improve attentiveness, concentration and alertness.
The energy of meditation is cumulative. In time teachers and students come to notice enormous educational benefits that promote individual performance and leadership skills. As teachers and students become more in tune with their own inner wisdom, they perform better in the classroom and in their lives.
Dialoguing with the Higher Self is taking meditation a step further for the purpose of developing a clear and precise contact with our true essence, our true or Higher Self, and utilizing It to help and guide us to receive answers to anything we would like to know.
Exercise III: Communicating with Your Wise Being Within
Step 1: Think of a question to which you would like to have an answer. The question may be around ways the Higher Self can help you. For instance, it may be around problem solving, such as, which computer should I buy? It may concern everyday decision-making, such as, Should I buy a condominium or rent? Or, it may concern relationships or self-improvement. For example, is this person someone with whom I could be friends? Or, would meditation be a good practice for me and in the classroom? When you have a question write it down.
Step 2: Sit comfortably in a chair, close your eyes and take three deep breaths and center yourself. Then concentrate your full attention and energy on your heart and tune inward. Try to experience your heart. It may feel as a slight pressure, as warmth, or a movement. When ready, imagine placing your question into the heart and let it go. The answer may come as a thought or a feeling. When you receive an answer write it down.
Step 3: Now take the answer you received from your Higher Self and imagine placing it into your mind. Then take whatever thought comes up and place it into your heart again and feel what it feels like. Does it feel right for you? You may continue alternating between mind and heart until you come to a deeper understanding in answer to your original question. Again, write the answer down.
Step 4: Now analyze and interpret the answer to ensure that you understand the deeper meaning to your original question and that it truly makes sense to you.
Step 5: Finally, find possible ways to implement the wisdom received from your Higher Self.
Although the Higher Self is part of you, It often may appear as a separate being especially when first consciously working with It. It may also appear as a luminous light, or be felt as a body sensation. Sometimes the Higher Self is evasive and may even disappear while communicating with It. Simply link with your heart again and repeat the last part of the exercise. If you see the Higher Self, It may or may not be in your gender. It may change as you work with It.
Sometimes parts of your personality may impersonate the Higher Self. Shining light on It will verify that It is your Higher Self. If it truly is the Higher Self, by shining light on the Higher Self It will either stay the same or get brighter. If it is not your Higher Self, it will disappear or turn dark. If this happens, and usually this happens to everyone during this process, simply tell it to leave and repeat the end of the exercise.
Exercise IV: Climbing the Mountain
Sit upright in your chair, close your eyes, and feel your whole body relax. Relax your feet, your legs, your thighs, your stomach, chest, shoulders, arms, neck and head. Now, your whole body feels relaxed.
Take some deep breaths and center yourself by linking with your heart in the center of your chest.
With each breath feel the cares of the day dissolve and try to let go of any thoughts and feelings.
Now imagine you are standing in a meadow and in front of you is a mountain. You are going to climb the mountain and it will be a very easy climb. At the very top you will meet your Higher Self.
You see a path in front of you and you start walking on the path. This path leads into a forest of tall pine trees. You can feel the coolness of the forest and smell the pine scent. As you walk upward on the path, you feel the pine needles under your feet. You can hear the birds singing and the rustle of leaves in the forest.
As you slowly climb upwards, rays of sunlight break through the pine tree branches lighting your way.
Now you are leaving the forest and continue climbing upward on the path. You see small trees and rocks scattered all around and patches of grass. As you climb you feel the warmth of the sun on your shoulders. It is a beautiful summer day with a gentle breeze making the climb very comfortable. You continue climbing upward.
In the distance you hear the sound of a waterfall. You leave the path and go to the side of the cliff. As you look toward the mountain you see a beautiful cascading waterfall. As the water splashes on the rocks nearest you, you feel the wet spray on your face and hear the roar of the water hitting the rocks beneath you.
You turn and return to the path and continue climbing upwards. Now there are no trees, just big boulders of rock, scrub brush and sand. You stop for a moment and see that there are other mountain ranges on either side.
You look down and see the meadow from where you have come. You turn and continue climbing upward. Now you are reaching the top of the mountain, and as you go around a bend, you see at the very top a flat plateau of land and on the plateau is a bench. You walk to the bench, sit down, and look at the beautiful vista of mountains all around you.
As you sit there feel the warmth of the sun on the top of your head. Turn your head and look up at the sun directly above you. As you look up a figure emerges and slides down a sunbeam and sits down next to you on the bench. This figure is your Higher Self.
You may also experience your Higher Self as a light, or a feeling of warmth, or expansion in your heart center. When you feel you are experiencing It, imagine the sun shining down on your Higher Self and notice if It changes. If It stays the same, or gets brighter, then It is your Higher Self. If it disappears, or gets dark, tell it to leave and take a moment and ask your Higher Self to come down the sunbeam again and continue with the exercise.
If you see It as a figure, imagine reaching out and holding the hands of your Higher Self, and linking your heart to your Higher Self’s heart. Feel your Higher Self’s energy flowing to you. How does that feel?
When you feel connected, ask the Higher Self any question or questions you may have. Your Higher Self’s answer may take the form of actual words, thoughts or impressions.
As a check for the information you have received, you may want to ask the Higher Self for signals of verification: For instance, a signal for a yes answer, a no answer or a maybe answer.
When you feel ready to end the conversation, ask the Higher Self if It has anything else It would like to tell you. Then thank your Higher Self, open your eyes, and write down everything that has occurred.
If you see the Higher Self, always shine light on It. It should stay the same or become more luminous. This ensures that It really is your Higher Self and not some other part of you. After working with the Higher Self, always end by thanking your Higher Self for It’s help. This is a way of strengthening the bond with your Higher Self. Ask the Higher Self to have It continue to guide and help you in education and everyday life.
The Higher Self works with all aspects of your being: the physical, psychological, mental, emotional, spiritual. It will never reveal information to you that you are not ready to receive. It will never upset or frighten you.
The more you work with the Higher Self, the easier it becomes to contact It. In time the Higher Self will appear just by linking with the heart center. The more you use your heart in education, in your everyday life, and in all your relationships, the stronger the Higher Self will become in your aware consciousness.
Remember, your Higher Self is your inner guide. It will lead you toward your true potential, assist you through all your life’s challenges, and help you awaken your creative and spiritual nature. The more you use the Higher Self to guide you in all your decisions, the stronger become your connections with your inner Wise Being. The Higher Self then takes you on the path to wholeness in education and everyday life, helps you to discover who you really are, and reveals to you your inner life wisdom.
(Exercises I, II, and III were adapted from Higher Self Yoga teachings. Exercise IV was adapted from material in the book Psychosynthesis by Roberto Assagioli.)
Disclaimer
All exercises, suggestions, ideas and workshop material provided
are for general information purposes only, do not constitute
professional advice, and are not intended to substitute for the
guidance of a professional or specialist. All use is therefore at
the user’s sole risk and responsibility. Irene van Kessel assumes
no liability or responsibility whatsoever for any loss or damage
of any kind regardless how arising.